


Valentines and Dancing Lessons

by WillowSong



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Romance, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-07
Updated: 2014-11-07
Packaged: 2018-02-24 11:06:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2579318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WillowSong/pseuds/WillowSong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Valentine's Day at Camp Half-Blood and Nico is horrified to learn that there will be a dance at the end of the day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Valentines and Dancing Lessons

"Oh no," Nico said in horror, backing up so fast he almost tripped. "Gods, no. Absolutely not. I refuse."

"Come on, Nico. Everyone will be there," Jason said soothingly.

"Exactly! There is no way I'm wearing that, especially not in public!"

"But everyone else is dressing up too."

"No!"

"Will is going to be disappointed," Piper grinned at him.

Nico glared at the couple standing in front of him, wondering what he had gotten himself into and how he was supposed to get out of it.

******

It had all started a week ago when Chiron had informed the camp at breakfast that there would be a Valentine's Day dance. In formal dress. Attendance was required.

Nico had just decided that Valentine's Day would be a very good time to pay a visit to Hazel when Will turned to him, grinning.

"This is going to be awesome! We're going to have such a good time. I can meet you at your cabin so we can walk over to the amphitheater together for the dance."

And just like that, Nico was roped into what would undoubtably be one of the most humiliating experiences of his life.

******

Jason, with the help of Piper, seemed to have taken it upon himself to add to Nico's misery. They had gone suit shopping for him and when they returned to camp they proudly showed Nico their purchase.

"Why can't I just wear this?" he asked, gesturing to his regular black jeans and T-shirt while distrustfully eyeing the suit Piper had set on his bed.

"Chiron said it was formal dress," Piper reminded him. "All the guys are wearing suits and all the girls are wearing dresses. It's going to be fun!"

"Fun?" He repeated, raising his eyebrows. "No, winning capture the flag when Jason and I were teamed against the rest of the camp was fun. Dressing up in this  _thing_ and humiliating myself in front of the entire camp is  _not_  fun."

"Oh, come on, Nico, it won’t be that bad."

Nico scowled, knowing this was an argument he wouldn't win. Why were his friends so stubborn?

******

The night of the dance, Nico was pacing the floor of the Hades cabin, wondering if it would be possible to bribe Clovis into putting the entire camp to sleep, when a knock sounded on the door.

He opened it to find Jason and Piper standing on the threshold, grinning at him like a couple of idiots. He glared back.

"Nico, you look fantastic!" Piper gushed as they let themselves in and closed the door behind them. She was wearing a dark blue dress with matching flowers tied into her braided hair. Jason was standing next to her with his arm around her waist, wearing a grey suit with a gold vest. He grinned at Nico.

"I knew that would look awesome on you," he said.

“I look like an eggplant,” Nico said glumly, glanced down at his suit. It was pitch black with a dark purple vest underneath.

"Here, you're just missing this." Piper stepped forward, ignoring his flinch as she reached for him and pinned something to his lapel.

She stepped back and grinned. "Much better."

"What did you do?" Nico asked, horrified at the appearance of the purple flower now pinned to his suit.

"It's just a flower," Jason grinned. "I've got one too, see?" He pointed at the red carnation pinned to his own lapel.

Before Nico could tell them that under no circumstances would he wear a flower in public, there was another knock on the door. Nico stepped forward to answer it, but Jason beat him there. He flung the door wide to reveal Will standing on the threshold.

He was wearing a snow white suit with a light blue vest. He was fiddling with his blue boutonnière but dropped his hand in surprise at seeing Jason.

"Oh. Jason. Hey. Um, I didn’t know you’d be here. Is Nico here?" he asked.

"He's here," Jason replied unhelpfully, folding his arms across his chest and staring Will down. "Just remember that I'm going to be there the whole time, Solace. And I  _will_  be watching."

"Um...."

Before Will could do much more than look confused, Nico elbowed past Jason.

"Okay, that's enough. Let's go." He grabbed Jason's wrist and yanked him along as he stalked away.

"See you guys there!" Will waved back at Piper and Jason. Nico could here Piper's laughter floating behind them.

He dropped Will's wrist as they continued walking, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"This is going to be awesome!" Will grinned.

"Yeah, fantastic," Nico muttered.

"Cheer up, di Angelo. It's a party! Everybody likes parties."

Nico snorted. "I hate parties."

Will grinned, unperturbed. "You'll like this one," he said, flinging an arm lazily across Nico's shouters.

Nico stiffened. The stupid skeletal butterflies were back and he last thing he wanted to do tonight was act like a giddy kid. But as he moved to shrug out from underneath the arm, Will tightened his grip.

"I know you don't like being touched," he said, staring straight ahead without looking at Nico. "But would it be okay? Just for tonight?"

Nico felt his heart pounding. "I guess," he said, trying to sound nonchalant.

Will grinned and pulled Nico just a fraction closer as they entered the amphitheater. It was already filled with campers laughing and talking together. Grover and some of the other satyrs were sitting to the side playing music on reed pipes. Some demigods, like Percy and Annabeth, who smiled and waved at Nico and Will, were already dancing in the middle of the arena. Clarisse was standing by the snack table glaring at the Stole brothers who were lurking close by, eyeing the punch bowl with their hands behind their backs.

"I feel like it's probably not a good idea to drink the punch," Will murmured in Nico's ear. “I don’t even want to think about what the Stole’s are trying to put in it.”

“I don’t know, I think it’s pretty safe with Clarisse standing guard,” Nico replied, trying to ignore with way Will breath fanned across his face.

“You want some then?”

“Um, sure.”

“Be right back,” Will grinned, taking his arm from Nico’s shoulders, and walked over to the snack table.

“Everything okay?” A voice said in Nico’s ear.

He rolled his eyes. “Gods, Jason. I’m fine.”

Piper linked her arm through Jason’s. “Come on, leave him alone,” she grinned, pulling her protesting boyfriend away just as Will bounded back over to Nico and handed him a cup.

“Here you go. I think Clarisse is going to start frisking anyone who goes near the punch bowl pretty soon, so I hope you don’t want any more. What’s wrong?” he asked, noticing Nico staring down at his cup with a strange expression.

“The punch. It’s pink.”

“Yes, it is.”

“But I don’t do pink.”

Will laughed. “You do tonight, Death Boy,” he replied, before taking a drink.

Nico glared at him. “I told you not to call me that.” He took a drink of the offending beverage and, finding that it actually had a pleasant strawberry taste, drank the rest as quickly as possible.

“Now what?” Nico asked as Will tossed their empty cups into a nearby bin.

“What do you think, silly?” Will asked cheerfully. “We dance!” He grabbed Nico by the hand and half-led, half-dragged him onto the dance floor.

“No, I don’t dance. Like, at all,” Nico hissed, looking around at the other demigods who were dancing around them.

“Neither does anyone else. Look at Percy, he looks like he’s imitating a walrus. And Clovis. . . Wait. Is he asleep? Is it seriously possible to dance in your sleep?”

“I’m serious, Solace, I can’t dance.”

“Sure you can.”

Will grabbed Nico’s wrist and pulled him closer, putting Nico’s arms around his neck and circling his own arms around Nico’s waist. He began to sway gently to the soft music of the satyr’s reed pipes. Nico moved automatically with him.

Will looked down at him in surprise after a few minutes as Nico began to take the lead. “You can totally dance,” he said accusingly. “You said you couldn’t.”

“Maybe ‘can’t’ wasn’t the right way to put it. ‘Choose not to’ might be closer.”

“Where did you learn?” Will asked as Nico guided him gracefully across the dance floor. Other couples moved aside for them and Nico felt his face flush when he saw that about half the camp was watching them.

“My mother taught me and Bianca before she died. I don’t remember all of it since it was so long ago, but I guess I remember more than I thought.”

Will smiled down at him. “You’re amazing. You should offer lessons.”

Nico laughed. “Yeah, that would be great: Come get dance lessons from the Prince of the Underworld. Then you can dance your way all the way down to Hades!”

Will shook his head, smiling despite himself. “Was that a joke, di Angelo? I was being completely serious. I want you to teach me. And I think you’ll probably need to teach Percy too, before he accidentally breaks Annabeth’s foot by stepping on it. Will you at least think about it?”

Nico sighed, exasperated. Why was this boy so endearingly obnoxious? “Fine, I’ll think about it.”

A smile split Will’s face and Nico looking away, blushing even harder. He would have agreed to give the Minotaur tap dancing lessons if it meant being on the receiving end of that smile.

The night wore on. Will kept Nico on the dance floor most of the night, but Nico didn’t mind. Everyone gave them a wide berth, leaving them to waltz expertly around the floor in peace, expect for when Percy and Annabeth passed them at one point and Percy stage-whispered, “ _Show-offs_.”

At midnight, right before sending everyone back to the cabins, Chiron signaled for the demigods to be quiet.

“I have one final surprise for you,” he said, smiling down at his students.

As soon as the words died on his lips, the sky was lit up with a brilliant display of fireworks. They exploded in the sky in a multitude of colors, raining down toward the demigods like a shower of rainbows.

Nico watched, mesmerized, until he felt a warm hand slip into his and hold it tightly. Turning, he saw Will standing beside him, but he wasn’t watching the fireworks at all; he was watching Nico, a soft smile on his face.

Nico found himself staring back into Will’s clear, blue eyes. Will moved a step closer, filling the remaining space between then, leaned down and-

“That’s all for tonight, children! Off to bed now, before the cleaning harpies come after all of us.”

Will jumped back, without letting go of Nico’s hand, as Chiron’s voice boomed through the amphitheater. Nico looked around them, heart pounding, and saw that the fireworks had ended and the campers were shuffling their way back toward the cabins. He was relieved to see that no one seemed to have noticed his and Will’s preoccupation during the fireworks.

They held hands all the way back to the cabins as the demigods around them called goodnight to each other. Nico saw Annabeth giving Percy a kiss goodnight before bounding into the Athena cabin. He was relieved to see that Jason was standing beside the Aphrodite cabin, too preoccupied with Piper to chaperone Nico as he and Will stopped by the Hades cabin.

Will looked down at their joined hands. “I know this was hard for you tonight,” he said suddenly. “But thank you.”

Nico shrugged. “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It was actually pretty fun. Just don’t tell Jason and Piper that I said that,” he added hurriedly.

Will didn’t respond, just smiled and looked deep into Nico’s eyes. “There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you all night,” he said.

Nico raised an eyebrow. “You’re kind of waiting until the last minute then, aren’t you?”

Will flushed. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

“Well, what is it?” Nico asked when Will didn’t say anything more.

Will blush deepened, but he looked Nico directly in the eyes and asked in a clear voice: “Will you be my Valentine?”

Nico’s jaw dropped and he fought the urge to look around him to make sure that Will was actually talking to him. Never in a million years would he have thought that someone would say that to him.

He replied with the only two words that didn’t seem to have fled his brain. “Well, duh.”

Will’s entire face lit up and Nico felt his breath hitch as Will closed the space between them for the second time that night. This time, though, their lips met in a soft, gentle kiss. Their lips moved softly together before Will broke the kiss, stepping back with a grin.

“Go to bed!” Chiron’s voice boomed across the camp at any of the demigods who, like Will and Nico, were still saying goodnight.

“I’ll definitely see you tomorrow,” Will said, kissing the back of Nico’s hand before he turned and dashed away.

As Nico stumbled in to his cabin, lightheaded and giddy, he heard a triumphant ‘whoop’ sound from direction of the Apollo cabin. A smile stretched across his face as he thought of all of the dance lessons he was going to be giving Will Solace.

His Valentine.


End file.
